Steven Ertelt

December 14, 2004

Amsterdam, Netherlands (LifeNews.com) -- A Dutch hospital that made international headlines earlier this month by revealing that it established guidelines for doctors to euthanize newborn babies it considered too sick to live claims the practice is widespread.

The Groningen Academic Hospital says the practice of killing infants that are deemed to physically deformed or too ill to survive very long on their own is already happening across the globe.

In a statement released Friday, according to the Cybercast News Service, Dr. Eduard Verhagen, of the hospital's pediatric clinic, said that "worldwide, the U.S. included, many deaths among newborns are based on end-of-life decisions, after physicians reached the conclusion that there was no quality of life."